I gather this can be used for an ongoing project rather than a discussion which can be brief or short term by its nature. So here’s the latest pic of the shed work in progress. Ok it’s not the latest, it’s not even about the shed it’s just a test. Now can I have three reputation points please?!

I thought, since my carefully documented build is soon to be relegated to the internet scrap heap, I’d start again from where I left off:

On the 20th of April 2014 on a thread somewhere I posted this:

**As some of you are aware, I once had a nicely appointed place in which to doodle with tools and whatever took my fancy. My tools were neatly stored, mostly clean and sharp and life was quite pleasant during those times when I wanted to hide from the world.

That was then and this is now.

For the last three summers I have been making do with a black hole of a space under our house. Tools have become progressively more rusty, and more broken, the place more depressing and despairing. On the other hand, tools have also become more worn from use as I’ve been working pretty much full time on the reno, but it’s all out of hand.

So the plan is to start on the workspace fit out when we get back in November, and I have a month to pack things away to get some semblance of order.

In order to distract myself, from the job in hand (designing the new dust extraction system), I thought I start this thread.

Watch this space.

P**

This was followed up immediately (in Midge time) five days later with this:

**Major, I am starting the dust system first this time… well I’ve found where I stashed the gates for the old one anyway.

Wongo, there is plenty of dust on these tools, most of them are worn out, but it’s mostly from misusing them, cutting concrete formwork and things like that. I currently don’t have a combination of belts, motors or broken bits to cobble together a belt sander for instance, out of the four I own.

But settle back for a looong ride anyway!

Let’s start with the blank canvas we took on three years ago. As you can see, it’s a nicely finished patchwork of textures and has a fully tiled floor - three different tiles and four tile patterns. There’s plenty of space, but some of it has to eventually turn into house/studio space and of course some of it has to house the car.

But this is where we began:-

Now it looks like this:- (Cute vintage effect to disguise poorly exposed out of focus pictures.)

It’s actually a big black hole, so I’ve set about installing twelve double fluorescent troffer light fittings that will be flush with the ceiling, (I’ll have a ceiling painted white) even thought it’s a bit low, and will rebuild the bathroom upstairs to get the shower and bath wastes out of the way.

I’ve already replaced the purple/blue roller door with a frightfully expensive aluminium and polycarbonate one, which helped the light situation no end.

Next we’ll have a bit of a tidy up and try to get all the furniture back on its feet, but after that:

New partitions will be ply sheeted, exposed brick bagged and painted (white) floor either epoxied or polished concrete - both solutions are cheaper and easier than trying to fix the tiles, many of which are cracked or broken and all of which are 'orible.

None of this happens this year of course, so I can create a long list, but I hope to build new cupboards -realistically the next move will be to somewhere suitable for old people, so smaller, lighter, not built-in cabinets that can fit around the edge of a single car garage are the go.

Yeah well,the shed’s going well. Thought I’d get stuck in this month, then discovered to get the back wall in I really had to rebuild the bathroom and laundry, and to get the power points where I wanted 'em I needed walls, and once there are walls I need plasterboard to make the wires safe. Then of course I can’t get the skirting on until after the floating floor goes down, and we need a ceiling as well to hang the light fittings from.

Day four, the tiles are jacked up and at the tip, the ceiling is in a neat pile marked “asbestos do not breath”, the bathroom walls (well the bathroom really) have disappeared, and if I can get a grinder over the weekend the floor will be ready to start framing on Monday.

So where can we get an “ectoplasm bunny” T-shirt? I’m sure that it’s far more likely that I’ll be seen walking down George street, wearing one of them, very much alive, than it is that I’ll see your completed dust extraction system.

Mind you, your dust extraction system being completed is now far more likely than mine being completed since I’ve decided to take most of my machines to work with a view to using them to actually do a couple of jobs for myself (bedside tables, hall table) before (hopefully) selling them to school.

A lot of water has passed under a lot of bridges since that photo was taken, and we’ve been on a boat going under most of them.

But, we have a working laundry, bathroom tile waterproofing happening today, the rest of the tiles are being stripped out of the garage and shed tomorrow - after taking 50m2 out with my super Ozito jack hammer, and grinding the slab above, someone else is doing the next 50!

Tiles next week.

Shed ceiling is in finished and lit, I’ve rendered (bagged) the exposed brick, and just need to line the walls once the tiles are in. Realistically, since we have to go back to our other home next month - we may not get started on the dust collection system, but I can almost smell the end of the reno work after five years.

and here’s the beginning of something. It’s not what you think, so breath easy. Actually it’s there so you can breath easy - I have a pair of 10" 600cfm fans, one of which will be attached to the outside by this pair of 6" outlets - should go a long way to removing that fine airborne dust. Not that I’d know much about that.

Belongs to the kid who used to live next door. He went off to the army and I said it couldn’t stay unlocked in his mum’s carport, so now I have this giant bit of decoration - it’s the 390 and goes just about as hard as any motorbike needs to!

@bitingmidge
And you know this from trying it out? KTM does manage to wring lots of ponies out of their motors. They tend to be a mite less long lived or reliable than some of their competitors but they do go hard. I’m lusting after their new 2 stroke road registerable enduro bike. Transfer port fuel injection, oil injection, balancer shaft, more than a foot of suspension travel at both ends, 6 speed box, 112 kg with a full tank and at least 50 ponies. Would chew through the back tyre very quickly but more than offset by the limited wear on the front due to it spending lots of time up in the air. Just need to have a small lotto win!

Finally finished the shed garden structures today - I dug the first holes four years ago. If you look carefully in the above pic, you’ll see a glimpse of it through the back door. Actually that’s through the back door via the bathroom (two way) and laundry, but anyway the last of the lattice panels is up and waiting for the passionfruit vine to recover from its vigorous prune.